MEPs of the European Parliament's Committee on Budgetary Control recommended on Wednesday 20 February that the European Commission be granted discharge for the implementation of the 2017 EU budget.
The report by Inés Ayala Sender (S&D, Spain) was adopted with 20 votes in favour and 2 against. It will be voted in Parliament plenary at the end of March.
MEPs welcome the reduction in payment errors in 2017 (2.4% according to the Court of Auditors).
Remaining to be liquidated. MEPs are concerned that in 2017, the amount of outstanding budgetary commitments reached a new record of 267.3 billion euros and that, according to the Court's projections, this amount will increase further by the end of the current Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).
Conflicts of interest. MEPs say that tendering procedures in some Member States “may have led to semi-legal procedures preventing fair competition and possibly leading to fraud”, noting deficiencies in Hungary and Slovakia.
MEPs also point out that their mission to Slovakia revealed “the risk that the management and control of European funds will be infiltrated by organised crime”. They also ask the Commission to put in place a policy of zero tolerance against conflicts of interest, referring to the need to investigate the case involving the Czech Prime Minister, Andrej Babiš (see EUROPE 12059). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)